Carnets natures, 2019, vol.

6 : 47-52

A femur of the giant bird Gargantuavis from the Late

Cretaceous of Var (south-eastern France)

Eric Buffetaut1,2, Delphine Angst3, Patrick Mechin4, Annie Mechin-Salessy4

Abstract

An incomplete femur from the Bastide-Neuve site (Fox-Amphux, Var) is referred to the giant bird
Gargantuavis philoinos, various remains of which have already been reported from that locality. It shows
close similarities with a more complete Gargantuavis femur previously described from the Montplo-Nord
locality (Cruzy, Hérault). An estimate based on the minimum circumference of the femur from Bastide-Neuve
indicates a mass of 75 kg, between the weights of the living cassowary and ostrich.

Keywords: Gargantuavis, femur, Late Cretaceous, southern France, body mass.

Résumé

Un fémur de l’oiseau géant Gargantuavis du Crétacé supérieur du Var (sud-est de la France)

Un fémur incomplet provenant du site Crétacé supérieur de Bastide-Neuve (Fox-Amphoux, Var) est attribué
à l’oiseau géant Gargantuavis philoinos, dont divers restes ont déjà été signalés dans ce gisement. Il montre
des ressemblances étroites avec un fémur plus complet de Gargantuavis précédemment décrit du gisement de
Montplo-Nord (Cruzy, Hérault). Une estimation réalisée à partir de la circonférence minimum du fémur de
Bastide-Neuve indique une masse de 75 kg, entre les poids du casoar et de l’autruche actuels.

Mots-clés : Gargantuavis, fémur, Crétacé supérieur, Sud de la France, masse corporelle.

Introduction Angst 2016b), a cervical vertebra (Buffetaut & Angst

The giant bird Gargantuavis philoinos is known
from a few Late Cretaceous localities in France
and Spain (Buffetaut & Angst 2016a, b; Angst &
Buffetaut 2017); in addition, a pelvis resembling that
of Gargantuavis has recently been described from the
Late Cretaceous of Romania (Mayr et al. in press).
Its osteology is still incompletely known, as only
elements of the pelvis [synsacrum and incomplete ilia
(Angst et al. 2017; Buffetaut et al. 1995; Buffetaut &
Le Loeuff 1998; Buffetaut et al. 2015; Buffetaut &
2013) and two femora (Buffetaut & Le Loeuff 1998;
Buffetaut & Angst 2019)] had hitherto been reported.
Therefore, any new discovery of Gargantuavis bones
is worth reporting. We describe here an incomplete
femur from the Bastide-Neuve locality at Fox-
Amphoux (Var, south-eastern France). That locality
had already yielded the first element referrable to
Gargantuavis [a synsacrum fragment (Buffetaut et al.
1995)], as well as two incomplete pelves consisting
of the synsacrum and incomplete ilia (Buffetaut et
al. 2015).

1. CNRS (UMR ), Laboratoire de Géologie, École Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, 24 rue Lhomond,
75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. eric.buffetaut@sfr.fr
2. Palaeontological Research and Education Centre, Maha Sarakham University, Maha Sarakham, Thailand
3. University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United
Kingdom. angst.delphine@gmail.com
4. 13127 Vitrolles, France.

Carnets natures (ISSN 2427-6111), http:// carnetsnatures.fr 47

E. Buffetaut, Delphine Angst, Patrick Mechin et Annie Mechin-Salessy
Geographical and geological setting
The Bastide-Neuve locality is located in the
northern part of department Var, in Provence (south-
eastern France), near the village of Fox-Amphoux.
Geologically, it belongs to the Montmeyan/Fox-
Amphoux syncline. According to Tortosa (2014),
the deposits at the Bastide-Neuve site correspond to
the Lower Rognacian facies, of late Campanian age.
In view of uncertainties regarding the exact ages
of the non-marine formations in Provence, an early
Maastrichtian age probably cannot be excluded.
On the basis of magnetostratigraphy, Gargantuavis
remains from Laño (Spain) are of late Campanian age,
whereas those from Campagne-sur-Aude (France) are
early Maastrichtian (Buffetaut & Angst 2016a and
references therein).
At Bastide-Neuve, the fossiliferous siltstones and
sandstones have been excavated for many years by
two of us (P.M. and A.M.S.) and have yielded a large
number of vertebrate fossils, including fishes, turtles,
crocodiles, pterosaurs and dinosaurs (see Buffetaut et
al. 2015 and references therein). As mentioned above,
the site had already yielded several pelvic elements
belonging to Gargantuavis philoinos.
Systematic description
Class Aves Linnaeus, 1758
Subclass Ornithurae Haeckel, 1866
Family Gargantuaviidae Buffetaut & Angst, 2019
Genus Gargantuavis Buffetaut & Le Loeuff, 1998
Species Gargantuavis philoinos
Buffetaut & Le Loeuff, 1998
The specimen (Mechin collection, n° 711) is a left
femur lacking both articular ends (Fig. 1). It has been
compared (Fig. 2) with a nearly complete right femur
of Gargantuavis philoinos (Musée de Cruzy, n° MC-
MN 1335) from the Montplo-Nord locality at Cruzy
(Hérault) described by Buffetaut and Angst (2019).
The specimen from Fox-Amphoux has undergone
relatively heavy crushing and distortion. The caudal
face, in particular, is much fractured. Proximally,
the articular head that fitted into the acetabulum
is missing, only the oblique mediodistal part of
the  “neck” (collum femoris) is visible. Where the
widened proximal end of the specimen is broken, the
internal bony structure is visible, showing cancellous
bone of the kind usually seen in this position in birds.
48
The shaft is robust, its medial margin is markedly
concave, whereas the lateral margin is straight along
most of its length, as in the femur from Cruzy. In
lateral and medial views, it shows a distinct sigmoid
curvature. On the cranial face of the shaft, there is a
well-marked crista intermuscularis cranialis which is
somewhat displaced laterally by crushing.
As in the femur from Cruzy, and unlike the
condition in the enigmatic bird-like taxon Elopteryx
nopcsai from the Late Cretaceous of Romania
(Lambrecht 1929, 1933), there is no indication of a
vestigial fourth trochanter on the medial margin of
the shaft. Distally the shaft becomes wider and flatter.
Where it is broken distally, the bone is hollow, with
thin bony walls, 2.3 to 4 mm in thickness. The poorly
preserved caudal face shows a well-marked crista
intermuscularis caudalis. Its proximal part is not
preserved, so that the prominent muscle scar visible
on the specimen from Cruzy cannot be seen. In the
distal part of the bone a low ridge located in a more
or less median position arises medially to the crista
intermucularis caudalis; a similar ridge is present on
the femur from Cruzy. This ridge forms the lateral rim
of the well defined fossa poplitea. The distal condyles
are completely missing.
Measurements, size and mass estimates
Measurement description Measurement
(mm)
Maximum length, 177
as preserved
Maximum width proximally,
as preserved 75
Maximum width distally, 60.5
as preserved
Minimum width of shaft 36.7
Minimum circumference of shaft 112
Table 1 - Principal measurements of specimen
number 711.
Because the specimen n°711 is not complete,
the measurements can only be taken “as preserved’’
(Tabl. 1), and the initial length of the bone can
only be estimated by comparison with the better
preserved femur from Cruzy, which is 235 mm in
length (Buffetaut & Angst 2019). The femur from
Bastide-Neuve was apparently slightly longer than
that from Cruzy. It appears somewhat more robust,
as shown by the greater minimum circumference

Fig. 1 – Left femur of Gargantuavis philoinos from the Bastide-Neuve locality (Fox Amphoux, Var, southern
France), Mechin collection n° 711, in caudal (A), cranial (B) and medial (C) views. Abbreviations: cf: collum
femoris; cica: crista intermuscularis caudalis; cicr: crista intermuscularis cranialis; fr: fossa poplitea. Scale bar:
50 mm.
but this may be slightly exaggerated by crushing.
In terms of length, the femur from Bastide-Neuve,
like that from Cruzy (Buffetaut & Angst 2019), is
intermediate in size between the femur of an emu
and that of a one-wattled cassowary (Dickison 2007),
thus being comparable with some of the largest living
ratites. The specimen from Bastide-Neuve is smaller
than the incomplete and poorly preserved femur
from Villespassans (Hérault) that was referred to
Gargantuavis philoinos by Buffetaut and Le Loeuff
(1998) but may possibly belong to a distinct, related
taxon of the Gargantuaviidae (Buffetaut & Angst
2019) (Tabl. 2).
The mass of an extinct bird can be estimated on
the basis of the minimum circumference of its femur,
using the equation proposed by Campbell and Marcus
Carnets natures (ISSN 2427-6111), http:// carnetsnatures.fr
Carnets natures, 2019, vol. 6 : 47-52
(1992) (equation 1) – see also Angst & Buffetaut
(2017).
Equation 1: Body Mass = (10 2.411xlog10(Minimum circumference
of the femur)-0.065
)/1000
Using this equation, the body mass estimated for
specimen n° 711 is 75 kg, a mass which falls between
those of the living cassowary and ostrich (Dunning
2008). This mass estimate is 1.3 times higher than the
body mass estimated for specimen MC-MN 1335 from
Montplo-Nord (Cruzy) (Buffetaut & Angst 2019).
This difference might be explained either by individual
variation or by a possible limited sexual dimorphism.
Without more specimens, it is so far difficult to
conclude. On the other hand, this new femur indicates
a mass more than 1.8 times smaller than that estimated
for the first femur attributed to Gargantuavis, from
49
E. Buffetaut, Delphine Angst, Patrick Mechin et Annie Mechin-Salessy
Length (mm) (of the
Specimens
preserved part)
MDE-A08 237
MC-MN 1335 235
Mechin collection, n° 711 177
Table 2: Summary of the measurements of the femora attributed to Gargantuavis and the body masses
estimated from them, using the equations proposed by (1) Anderson et al. (1985) or (2) Campbell & Marcus
(1992)
Villespassans, Hérault (MDE-A08). This may be
linked to the poor preservation of femur MDE-A08,
which may have led to calculate an erroneous and
overestimated body mass, or to an important sexual
dimorphism in Gargantuavis, or might reflect the
possibility that the specimen from Villespassans
(Buffetaut & Le Loeuff 1998) belongs to a distinct,
related taxon of the Gargantuaviidae (Buffetaut &
Angst 2019). More material is necessary to propose a
more robust conclusion.
Conclusions
Both in its morphology and its dimensions, the
femur from Bastide-Neuve closely resembles that
from the Montplo-Nord locality at Cruzy (Hérault).
As noted by Buffetaut and Angst (2019), the femur
from Montplo-Nord was found in the same stratum
and a short distance away from pelvic remains that
are very similar to the type specimen of Gargantuavis
philoinos from Campagne-sur-Aude (Buffetaut &
Le Loeuff 1998). At Bastide-Neuve, the femur also
comes from a locality that has yielded sacral and
pelvic elements clearly referrable to Gargantuavis
philoinos (Buffetaut et al. 2015). Both at Montplo-
Nord and at Bastide-Neuve, large avian femora occur
together with pelvic remains that clearly belong
to Gargantuavis philoinos. Although the various
elements have not been found in articulation, the co-
occurrence at two distinct localities of pelvic remains
and femora of large size all showing clear avian
characters is most parsimoniously explained by the
hypothesis that they all belong to the same taxon. We
therefore refer the Bastide-Neuve femur number 711
to Gargantuavis philoinos.
Acknowledgments
We thank the owners of the Bastide-Neuve
locality, Mr and Mrs Vimont, for kindly allowing P.M.
50
Minimum Estimated body
circumference of the
mass (kg)
femur (mm)
148 141 (1) or 147 (2)
100 57 (2)
112 75 (2)
and A.M.S. to carry out palaeontological excavations
on their property. Thanks to Michel Bilotte for his
comments for this paper.
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 Carnets natures, 2019, vol. 6 : 47-52

Fig. 2 – Comparison between the Gargantuavis philoinos femur from Montplo-Nord, MC-MN 1335 (A) and
that from Bastide-Neuve, Mechin collection n° 711 (B), in cranial view. Scale bar: 50 mm.

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Soumis le 15 novembre 2019

Accepté le 20 novembre 2019
Publié en ligne (pdf) le 29 novembre 2019

Éditeur : Asnat, Association les Amis des Sciences de la Nature, Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, 81600, Gaillac, France
52